My VitaMix is making me a lazy cook.
When I have extra produce that I need to use up, do I scour the internet (aka “my favorite cookbook”) for a novel way to cook it? No, I just toss it into my turbo-charged blender and process it until it’s as creamy as, well, cream, as frothy as sea foam. I throw in a few herbs, a complementary spice or grating of pepper, and it’s cheating, really—gourmet cooking without the cooking. The crazy machine will even heat it up for me if I’m too lazy to get out a pot.
So even though a few of you have written asking me to post more Vita-Mix recipes, I hesitate, first, because I know that not everyone has one of these blenders-on-steroids and, second, because it’d be just too easy to work my way through the vegetable kingdom, blending up everything from celeriac to potatoes to zucchini and filling this blog with nothing but Vita-Mix recipes. And you wouldn’t want that.
But let’s say you did. We could start with the letter A and one of my favorite vegetables, asparagus. We could make it a bit special by roasting the asparagus along with garlic and onions to bring out their natural sweetness before blending with just enough raw cashews to add some extra body and creaminess. And we could preserve the fresh flavor of the asparagus by treating it simply, not overwhelming it with competing flavors, adding a sprinkle of lemon peel to brighten and highlight its earthy green taste.
Don’t worry. I’m not going to let the Vita-Mix take over this blog, though with summer vegetables on their way, it’s certainly tempting. Actually, you don’t even need a high-powered blender to make this delicious vegan asparagus soup. Try it in any ordinary blender, and if it doesn’t get as smooth as silk, strain it through a fine sieve to remove any excess fiber.
You don’t want a Vita-Mix anyway; it’ll just make you lazy.
Roasted Asparagus Soup
Ingredients
- 2 pounds asparagus ends trimmed
- 2 cloves garlic peeled
- 1/2 small onion sliced
- 2 cups warm vegetable broth or “no-chicken” broth
- 1/2 ounce raw cashews (1 heaping tablespoon) or 1 tablespoon cashew butter
- 1/8 teaspoon white pepper
- salt to taste
- grated peel of 1/2 lemon or orange
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450F. Place the asparagus spears on a baking sheet lined with a silicone liner or parchment paper. Roast for 10 minutes. Turn asparagus and sprinkle the onion and garlic over it. Roast for about 10 more minutes, until asparagus is very tender. If anything looks like it’s browning too much, take it out. (Important Note: These directions are for thicker asparagus. Thin asparagus may take much less time so start with 6 minutes, turn and add onions and garlic, and check again in 5.)
- While the asparagus is roasting, blend 1/2 cup of the broth with the cashews and pepper until smooth. Leave it in the blender.
- When the asparagus is done, select several of the best-looking spears, remove the tops, and set aside to use as garnish. Cut the remaining asparagus into pieces and put it and the onion and garlic into the blender, along with the remaining broth. Cover the blender and blend on high until perfectly smooth.
- If you’re using a Vita-Mix, you can blend it on high for a few more minutes until piping hot (remove the center cup and cover with a kitchen towel to allow steam to escape). Otherwise, pour the soup into a saucepan and heat until hot, stirring frequently. Add salt, if needed, to taste.
- Pour into bowls and sprinkle with grated lemon or orange peel. Garnish each bowl with the reserved asparagus spears and serve hot.
Notes
Nutritional info is approximate.
Additional Appetizing Asparagus Recipes:
Blanched Asparagus with Almonds, Shallots & Lemon from Not Eating Out in New York
Asparagus Quinoa Sushi with a Lemon-Ginger Dipping Sauce from Vegan Eats
Asparagus Tapenade from A Veggie Venture
Asparagus Pesto Pasta Salad (from yours truly)
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Caroline
This recipe is on my must-try list, as it sounds so great! I just started a dialogue with my DH about a Vita-Mix. He’s an engineer and can’t see how my blender or food processor can’t accomplish what a Vita-Mix can. It appears that everyone who owns the VM loves it. What other tasks does it perform in addition to smooth soups, hummus and drinks – or is that its whole repetoire?
Thanks so much.
SusanV
That’s about it! It does all those things very well, though, and is guaranteed to last at least 7 years (I know people who have had them twice as long and are still using them). My main reason for getting one was the durability. I’d gone through 4 blenders in less than 4 years, spending about the cost of a Vitamix, and I was tired of having them conk out on me. The power to make soups silky smooth is a nice bonus.
Zach
I prepped this one last night (didn’t heat since we had already eaten dinner – I’m not going to be home till late tonight and I wanted something to be in the fridge that my wife could just heat – and stir – and eat) and though I didn’t heat it and all I tasted was a couple spoonfuls of final runoff out of my blender, this soup was amazing.
I used my kitchen-aide blender and I might have accidentally doubled the cashews – whoops! – but it was delicious and creamy and I am NOT usually a fan of asparagus. Thank you so much for this. If the family likes it as much as I do it will go into regualr circulation.
Allison
Just finished this soup, in the VM (my first soup I ever made in my VM despite having it for a year). Turned out great! I had a huge bunch of asparagus in teh fridge I have been meaning to do something with and some red onions and garlic. I threw handful of raw sunflower seeds too for extra protein and iron. Will make again! More VM recipes please!!!!
Maria
I want to be a lazy cook! Please, as many vitamix recipes as it takes.
And Fyi, I did buy a vitamix, through your link but it seemed to go wrong. You might want to make sure you are getting credit for things.
Thanks!
SusanV
Thanks for trying, Maria! I wonder what went wrong.
Sarah (MyRawSecret)
This looks amazing. I really wanted to eat it but I am switching to raw food to lose some weight so I made a raw-ified version of this! The same basic ingredients, just raw. I’ll be blogging about it tomorrow!
Angela
Thank you for this recipe! In the summer it gets so hot in my apartment that all I can bring myself to do is to throw some veggies in the blender and call it a soup. Most days I even dread turning on the oven for just 10 minutes, so if you have any good ideas for some cold/raw soups, please please post! I’ve tried a few decent raw soups but it’s not always easy to strike that balance between high nutrition and good taste. Thanks again.
Mary
Interested in trying this soup recipe. Could you please let me know whether it would still work without the cashews or cashew butter?
THANKS!
Kristen
WONDERFUL! I just made this today and LOVED it! I’m not a huge asparagus fan, but I could eat this all day. I couldn’t get over how rich and creamy the cashews made it, and the combination of ingredients and spices was perfect. It’s amazing that two bunches of asparagus could be reduced to four bowls of soup too–what a great way to get your veggies. Thanks for a fantastic recipe!
Michelle
Susan, do you have a suggestion for a substitute for the cashews? My son is allergic and even if I’m making this for just myself, I avoid having them in the house at all. I’m certainly assuming that I can leave them out altogether, but it sounds like they are key to thickening the soup up.
Thanks!
Michelle
Doh! I see this has been asked (multiple times!!!) already. That’ll teach me to read the comments fully before I post one. 🙂 Please feel free to disregard!!!!!
AmyLu
Half an avocado can make the soup creamy and delicious, for those avoiding cashews. And a spoon of walnut butter is a nice addition to the avocado, too.
Mary
Hi Susan,
Can’t wait to try this recipe. I have one question though. Do your soups freeze well?
Thanks,
Mary
SusanV
Mary, I’ve never tried freezing this one, so I can’t say for sure. Only one way to find out… 🙂
Patricia Baughman
I made this soup for supper tonight. I used my blender and the soup came out perfectly smooth. I did brush the asparagus with a little olive oil before roasting. It was excellent.
Greg
I have a VitaMix and I absolutely love it!! It’s so powerful it is great for soups and shakes. Highly recommended.
melzipper01
Hello,
I made the asparagus soup tonight and it was WONDERFUL! I am not sure what I am supposed to do with the cashew/soup part (number 2). You say to blend it but then what do I do with it? I just poured it into the soup at the end…was that correct? Thanks! Melissa
SusanV
The cashew mixture stays in the blender and you add the asparagus, onion, garlic, and remaining broth to it and blend again. Sorry I didn’t make that clear. It sounds like your way got the same results.
P90X
This sounds really good and I love asparagus so I must give this a try! Thanks!
Divya Vikram
I made this yesterday! Replaced the cashews with blanched almonds. Turned out amazing. thanks for the recipe…
Christina
Wow! Omg is this ever sooooo good!!! Great super easy recipe! Thanks so much!
Sharon
We thoroughly enjoyed this soup. That said, we are ETL so we each ate two servings and could have eaten more.
I was surprised at how creamy the few tablespoons of raw cashew butter made this soup. I did cook it in the Vitamix and it didn’t get it too frothy, but did get it a bit overblended. I’m still trying to get the feel of using the Vitamix.
Next time I think I’ll add a tiny splash of lemon juice for just a bit more tang.
Thanks Susan for your wonderful recipes!
Sharon
peach
Excellent recipe. I like how minimal the ingrediants and steps are. I used hemp seed butter and I roasted the asparagus in roasted garlic oil. Highly recommended. I’m bookmarking your site and I can’t wait to try out more of your fat free vegan recipes! Thank you.
ruthann88
I made this tonight……my only addition was rice that I had in the bottom of each bowl that some chopped cilandro and lime juice and zest. It was soooooo good and the added rice made it very filling. Thanks again!!!!!
(I love my vitamix……use it every day. On Thursdays I take it to work and everyone brings in different fruit (fresh and frozen) and we make smoothies for the entire office. My small way of planting the seeds of healthy eating :))
Ani
I got the vitamix cheaper at Costco and I love it! It’s worth every penny!! I will be making this soup this week!! Thank you!
Jean
Incredibly good. Going to top it with some croutons I made from leftover fennel-olive bread.
admattai
I love my Vita-Mix, definitely going to try this recipe soon!
Jessica
This recipe is delicious! My boyfriend and I just made it for dinner with the asparagus we picked from our garden. yummm, EXCELLENT, healthy recipe. Thank you, we will be making and sharing this often 🙂
sue in CA
After purchasing a variety of immersion blenders / blenders that all died cuz they couldn’t do what a Vitamix does, I succumbed and bought the Vitamix …worth every penny! It would have saved me $ to buy it first. I use it every day.
I make a great protein shake every morning with 1 cup coffee, 12-15 almonds (in place of almond milk), chia seeds, flaxseed, choc whey protein powder, cinnamon, crushed red pepper flakes, cocoa, stevia and about 2 cups ice. OMG heaven.
Ainsley
This site is the ONLY cookbook I ever use. Thank you for the endless “yum”.
Susan Voisin
Thank you! You just made my day!
Suzanne
Funny, everyone is talking about the vita-mix. This SOUP is fantastic! The nuts really add some heft. It was delicious – will be making it again! Thank you for sharing.
jaime
Ah! thank you so much. I overbought food thinking I was entertaining and I doubt ill get to my asparagus (they seem to get slimy pretty quickly). I will def be making this soup in the next couple of days!!
Radhika Sarohia
Made this tonight and skipped the cashews bit (trying to keep it sort of lowfat)
I meant to add plain soymilk or almond milk but found I’d run out of those
I stove-top roasted the asparagus as I was in a rush, and added lime instead of lemons since I don’t have lemons right now
I added cumin as suggested in the comments, and a bit of soy sauce too
Anyway, it came out fine regardless of all the changes, thanks for the recipe
Amanda
I just made this soup and let me say this is soo delicious. I have owned a vitamix for quite some time and I havent made soups with it n boy have I been missing out. I look forward to other recipes to try out whether old or new.
Cassandra
I just made your roasted asparagus soup and it is AMAZING! I don’t have a vitamix, just an old 80s blender, but I blended it for a good while and, although there are still some fibres in there, I actually like it like that! You can taste the goodness 🙂 Also, I ran out of stock, so I substituted half of it with miso soup and it tastes wonderful. I love how creamy the ground up cashews makes the soup. Thanks again.
Brenda
I made this tonight as a Welcome, Spring! soup. I can’t eat tree nuts so I subbed a head of cauliflower (roasted) and it was excellent! I have a 1500w “Ninja” (ie poor cook’s Vitamix) and it worked very well.
Thanks, Susan!
Cheryl
Today my local store marketplace if anyone is in north Texas, had asparagus 98 c per pound. omg, I bought 6 pounds LOL Definitely going to make this soup again. I have a vitamix, I’m kinda scared of it LOL but I definitely appreciate getting good fatfree vegan recipes to use it with. It came with a recipe book but those tend to be smoothies or have fat. Would love to see more soups, dips, that use it posted here.
Last time I made this soup I added some a little sweet potato I had in the fridge, and a touch of soy milk, and some raw cashews. We were too full to eat anything else after that!
steph
I came across this recipe trying to find a way to use up some cheap asparagus that had been sitting in my fridge for over a week. I was skeptical on the taste given the simple ingredient list, but I was bowled over by how good it was! It tastes just as rich as a cream based soup. I will gladly make this over and over again. Thanks for reminding me how easy it is to make a great soup with my beloved Vita-mix
Tabby
I was looking for a recipe to use up my asparagus stems from last night’s dinner. Soup! I am lactose intolerant, so this recipe is perfect. My first time using cashews in the Vitamix (totally worth the money!). I roasted a large baking pan full of asparagus stems, one whole shallot, some oil and garlic, for 14 min total. Added everything to the Vitamix with the broth, and voila, lunch! My 4 year old didn’t approve, but she devoured roasted asparagus and roasted onion for dinner last night, so only a matter of time until she will love the soup. Thanks for being my inspiration today!!!
deb
This soup is delicious and so easy to make. I added a dash of cayenne pepper to boost it. GREAT!!